A Top 5 debut for the Rolling Girls! This episode had plenty going for it – a fair amount of plot and character development, with Momizo turning out to be the missing vocalist of the Momiyage Hammers (and a badass), and Chiaya suddenly having mind-reading powers (I love that the rest of the group hardly questioned this). 😛 But it was of course the concert and fireworks display towards the end that really stood out, that was some amazing animation direction going on there.

Credit where credit is due, episode eight of Yuri Kuma Arashi was pretty good! The plot had been moving forward slowly, hence why it’s avoided placing last for a couple of weeks, but it still felt predictable – we all knew that Ginko and Kureha were old friends, as the picture book was hardly subtle, but it took a whole episode dedicated to that one fact before Kureha finally twigged. And with all the references to Ginko being a ‘crimibear’, something must have led her to kill Kureha’s mother, right? Wrong. Apparently this series CAN do plot twists! But though she isn’t Reia’s killer, she still did something serious enough to make Kureha want to kill her… and I’m left really wanting to watch the next episode to find out more!

I don’t know why Yuriika-sensei being a bear came as such a shock (Kuma Shock!), it seems everyone with Yuri in their name is one. 😮

Moving down:

Another plot-twisting flashback in Tokyo Ghoul √A revealed that Yoshimura, the manager of Anteiku, is the father of the One-Eyed Owl who’s been causing CCG so much trouble. A fairly standard girl-meets-ghoul romance backstory, with the happy family soon torn apart by other ghouls who killed his partner and abducted his child. And the rest of the episode was slow-paced, mostly focusing on Yoshimura wrapping up business with Anteiku and discussing coffee with Shinohara. Definitely a build-up episode, so whatever’s coming next should be interesting.

Yoru no Yatterman continues to provide weekly slapstick comedy and weird mecha action in a jarringly dark setting. When the balance shifts more towards tragedy, I like it a lot, but this week’s episode was more comic relief, focusing on a fisherman’s dream to see the real ocean, not just the small area walled off by Yatterman. He and the Doronbo gang end up being captured in an underwater facility, but they soon escape thanks to Galina’s planning and Boyacky’s inventions. Fairly amusing, but nothing that really stood out.

The joys of the ocean~

General comments:

A first #1 spot for Parasyte -the maxim- this season~ Finally, humans are able to effectively strike back at the parasytes, with help from scanners and humans which can detect them; despite this, the human body count in this extermination still turned out to be pretty high, as saving innocent civilians is not the military’s primary objective. 😮 Most of the regular parasytes fall easily to the shotguns, designed to counter their regenerative abilities by causing massive damage to a wide area… but as we know, Gotou is no regular parasyte, and turns the pellets back on them! Mayor Hirokawa’s still alive too, and I’m assuming he has some weird ability up his sleeve. Meanwhile, Shinichi just sits there, prevented from getting involved by Migi – presumably not for much longer.

Nanatsu no Taizai brough yet more flashbacks, as we learned Helbram’s (and King’s) backstory – a fairly standard tale of greedy humans ruining everything. Turns out that the green-haired, pointy-eared fairy is his true form, though I like that the chibi helmet and eye-patch-wearing old man forms were all relevant to his past. Also explained is how King fell for Diane, though she sadly has no memories of meeting him before joining the Sins. Following that, King and Helbram faced off in a short but fantastic battle, and elsewhere Hendrickson’s fight with the mysterious King Arthur is interrupted by Meliodas. So glad I picked this back up!